124.521/171: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in Spain (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:34 p.m.]
1173. Your 506, January 16, 7 p.m. I fear that my 1166, January 15, 11 p.m., and 1167, January 16, 10 a.m.,16 must have reached you in a garbled condition, as I did not suggest that the Embassy and Consulate General should return to Barcelona under present conditions or that a naval vessel should attempt to call there. I specified Caldetas.
My tentative plans are as follows: I have been promised advanced information should the Government decide to leave Barcelona, and if I receive that warning or otherwise anticipate such a development I shall arrange to take the Embassy staff, codes, files, and essential equipment to France pending clarification of the situation. At the same time, I shall call for (and await the arrival of) a naval vessel on which the consular staff and Americans in general may be removed if necessary. Should events take place with such rapidity that the foregoing plan would not be feasible I shall remain here as long as seems prudent and thereafter with the staff and equipment cited go aboard a naval vessel. Have you any instructions?
- Latter not printed.↩